[gentoo-user] trying to turn numlock automatically in my ttys under systemd

[cov...@ccs.covici.com]

Hi. I want to turn numlock automatically, but I am using systemd and I
am having troubles doing this. At someones suggestion in a previous
message (I think Canek's) I created
/etc/systemd/system/getty@service.d/numlock.conf with the following
contents

[Service]
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I


However, setleds dies with the following error:
Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate
ioctl for device
Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: Error reading current
flags setting. Maybe you are not on the console?

I tried to fool with chvt to make the console current, but no joy there.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

--
Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is:
How do
you spend it?

John Covici
cov...@ccs.covici.com

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 4:06 AM, <cov...@ccs.covici.com> wrote:
> Hi. I want to turn numlock automatically, but I am using systemd and I
> am having troubles doing this. At someones suggestion in a previous
> message (I think Canek's) I created
> /etc/systemd/system/getty@service.d/numlock.conf with the following
> contents
>
> [Service]
> ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I
>
>
> However, setleds dies with the following error:
> Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate
> ioctl for device
> Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: Error reading current
> flags setting. Maybe you are not on the console?
>
> I tried to fool with chvt to make the console current, but no joy there.
>
> Any assistance would be appreciated.

Could you post the exact invocation for setleds? It should be on the
logs. I think the invocation for setleds shuld be:

/usr/bin/setleds -D +num < /dev/%i

The difference between %I (capital "i") and %i is only that %i escapes
special symbols, but since it's only the string tty[1-N], I don't
think it matters much.

The exact invocation of setleds matters, so we can see if the template
unit is generating the correct one.

Regards.
--
Canek Peláez Valdés
Profesor de asignatura, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

[Jc García]

2014-06-20 9:06 GMT-06:00 Canek Peláez Valdés <can...@gmail.com>:
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 4:06 AM, <cov...@ccs.covici.com> wrote:
>> Hi. I want to turn numlock automatically, but I am using systemd and I
>> am having troubles doing this. At someones suggestion in a previous
>> message (I think Canek's) I created
>> /etc/systemd/system/getty@service.d/numlock.conf with the following
>> contents
>>
>> [Service]
>> ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I
>>
>>
>> However, setleds dies with the following error:
>> Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate
>> ioctl for device
>> Jun 19 14:24:55 ccs.covici.com setleds[4878]: Error reading current
>> flags setting. Maybe you are not on the console?
>>
>> I tried to fool with chvt to make the console current, but no joy there.
>>
>> Any assistance would be appreciated.
>

This has called my attention as it would be nice to activate numlock
by default on console(altought not that important for me anyway )

> Could you post the exact invocation for setleds? It should be on the
> logs. I think the invocation for setleds shuld be:
>
> /usr/bin/setleds -D +num < /dev/%i
>

I have tried this but after skimming trough the manpage
systemd.service(5), I've found this command will not work, as a
parameter for any of ExecStart* since redirection and pipes(these are
mentioned << < | > >> ) are not supported.
I'd like to mention also that not executing setleds as follows, with
'-' before the binary path :

ExecStartPost=-/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%i

breaks the start of the whole getty service, making it unable to login
in into any console
The way to work around this recommended in the manual is instead
invoking a shell and make it run the commands:

ExecStartPost=-/bin/sh -c 'setleds -D +num < /dev/%i'

This worked pretty well and can be tested without reboot, on tty8 for example :
- edit files
- run sudo systemctl daemon-reload
- run systemctl start getty\@tty8.service
Ctrl+Alt+F8 and see what happened .

> The difference between %I (capital "i") and %i is only that %i escapes
> special symbols, but since it's only the string tty[1-N], I don't
> think it matters much.
>
> The exact invocation of setleds matters, so we can see if the template
> unit is generating the correct one.
>

I leave my 'systemctl stauts -l ge...@tty1.service' output just for
completness of reference of what errors where shown:

● ge...@tty1.service - Getty on tty1
Loaded: loaded
(/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/../../../../usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service;
enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/getty@.service.d
└─numlock.conf
Active: active (running) since vie 2014-06-20 10:11:57 CST; 8s ago
Docs: man:agetty(8)
man:systemd-getty-generator(8)
http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/serial-console.html
Process: 6384 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/setleds -D +num < /dev/%i
(code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 6383 (agetty)
CGroup: /system.slice/system-getty.slice/ge...@tty1.service
└─6383 /sbin/agetty --noclear tty1 linux

jun 20 10:11:57 jdesk systemd[1]: Started Getty on tty1.
jun 20 10:11:57 jdesk setleds[6384]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate ioctl for device
jun 20 10:11:57 jdesk setleds[6384]: Error reading current flags

setting. Maybe you are not on the console?

> Regards.
> --
> Canek Peláez Valdés
> Profesor de asignatura, Facultad de Ciencias
> Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
>

I hope this would help, have a nice day.

[cov...@ccs.covici.com]

Thanks for your response, First of all I want -num and not +num, but
that does not make any difference. I am using your unit from
/usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service and add the following in the
.conf file

[Service]
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I

The invocation is not in the logs, all I get is the following:
Jun 19 14:26:26 ccs.covici.com systemd[1]: Started Getty on tty8.
Jun 19 14:26:26 ccs.covici.com setleds[5100]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate
ioctl for device
Jun 19 14:26:26 ccs.covici.com setleds[5100]: Error reading current

flags setting. Maybe you are not on the console?

Jun 19 14:26:26 ccs.covici.com systemd[1]: ge...@tty8.service: control
process exited, code=exited status=1
Jun 19 14:26:26 ccs.covici.com systemd[1]: Unit ge...@tty8.service
entered failed state.

But I know that %I is tty8 or whatever the device is. I checked with a
shell script to make sure.

[Jc García]

Check my post above, I found the issue with running this command , I
wanted '+num' so thats the only diference.

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

You are completely right; I had forgotten about redirection in Exec* directives.

[cov...@ccs.covici.com]

I tried your idea of a shell script like this
[Service]
ExecStartPost=/bin/bash -c "setleds -D -num </dev/%I"
But it did not work, it kept restarting and systemd eventually refused
to start. When I commented out the line, it started OK.

[Jc García]

2014-06-20 11:26 GMT-06:00 <cov...@ccs.covici.com>:

> I tried your idea of a shell script like this
> [Service]
> ExecStartPost=/bin/bash -c "setleds -D -num </dev/%I"

I tried your line on my system, and rebooted, and didn't see any problem.

I have:

/etc/systemd/system/getty\@.service.d/numlock.conf:
[Service]
#ExecStartPost=-/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I'
ExecStartPost=/bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/setleds -D -num </dev/%I"


After reboot I logged in using tty1, here's the output of

systemctl status -l ge...@tty1.service:
-----

● ge...@tty1.service - Getty on tty1
Loaded: loaded
(/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/../../../../usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service;
enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/getty@.service.d
└─numlock.conf

Active: active (running) since vie 2014-06-20 12:04:47 CST; 19min ago

Docs: man:agetty(8)
man:systemd-getty-generator(8)
http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/serial-console.html

----->This line:
Process: 625 ExecStartPost=/bin/bash -c /usr/bin/setleds -D -num
</dev/%I (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)


Main PID: 624 (login)
CGroup: /system.slice/system-getty.slice/ge...@tty1.service
‣ 624 /bin/login --

jun 20 12:05:17 jdesk login[624]: pam_unix(login:session): session
opened for user jc by LOGIN(uid=0)
-----

> But it did not work, it kept restarting and systemd eventually refused
> to start. When I commented out the line, it started OK.
>

Post the actual output you get from systemd when is trying to start a
getty@ service, to see what's going on in your machine.

[cov...@ccs.covici.com]

OK, here is what I get when I enable the ExecStartPost line:


bash[28875]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash[28875]: Error reading current flags setting. Maybe you are not on
the console?
bash[28879]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash[28879]: Error reading current flags setting. Maybe you are not on
the console?
bash[28883]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash[28883]: Error reading current flags setting. Maybe you are not on
the console?
bash[28887]: KDGKBLED: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash[28887]: Error reading current flags setting. Maybe you are not on
the console?

[Michael Cook]

% cat /etc/systemd/system/getty@.service.d/activate-numlock.conf
[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c 'setleds +num < /dev/%I'


That works here to turn numlock on (source ArchLinux wiki)

[Jc García]

After I tried to switch back to setleds +num, in numlock.conf ,
without rebooting, I got into errors too.

>>
> % cat /etc/systemd/system/getty@.service.d/activate-numlock.conf
> [Service]

> ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c 'setleds +num < /dev/%I'

But this ^ solved it, thanks for posting it Michael.